AUGUSTA, N.J. - FDU Baseball's 2026 season came to a close as the Knights fell in the NEC title game at the hands of the top seeded LIU Sharks, as LIU created an offensive outburst to down the Knights, winning the 2026 NEC title, and grabbing the conference's bid into the NCAA Baseball Tournament.
The Knights started game one of the championship series with the lead however, as
Johnathan Gomez led off the ballgame with a leadoff double, as was able to be brought around on a two out RBI single from
Diego Urreta, giving the Knights a 1-0 advantage after the first half inning.
FDU starter
Drew Cisney struggled to find the strike zone, walking the bases loaded, where the Sharks cashed in on a hit by pitch, an RBI walk, an RBI base hit, a SAC fly, a fielder's choice, and a wild pitch, scoring seven runs in total, taking a 7-1 lead in the first inning.
Hunter Ray would get the Knights closer in the top of the third inning with a solo home run, cutting the lead to five runs. LIU then answered in the bottom half, plating three runs and extending their lead to a 10-3 count after the first third of the ballgame.
FDU did not go down without a fight however, the Knights found four more runs in the top of the fourth inning, getting a three run home run from
Hunter Ray, and also cashing in on a LIU balk to get the Knights within four runs.
LIU then got five runs of their own in the fifth inning, scoring two on an FDU error, and hitting FDU relievers
Derek Bartek and
Chris Messina. The Sharks then blew the game open in the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring six runs, four of which coming on a grand slam from NEC Tournament MVP Joseph Durso.
The Sharks then set the Knights down without a run in the seventh inning, ending the ballgame in seven innings, with the score being 22-8 LIU.
This officially concludes the season for FDU, a season where the Knights broke all sorts of records, but most importantly, the single-season wins record, the single-season NEC wins record, the team home runs record, the team runs scored record, among many others.
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